The \"taka\" shield: What evidence exists?

[Dan D'Silva]

Good morning. I don't have easy access to an academic library at the moment (I can get to some in Philadelphia if need be) and I find the references available on the Internet for construction of crescent shields deficient.

Can anyone tell me what artistic and archaeological evidence has been found for these shields (with specific findings if possible), or even just what reports might contain them?

I've found allusions to grave findings, but the only one I know by name is Pazyryk and the shields there seem to be of a different type (according to the extract Google is able to provide of Frozen Tombs of Siberia). The Louvre's G 571 and the Alexander Sarcophagus are the best artistic evidence I can find.

[Sean Manning]

I am on the road at the moment. Can you ask again in two to four weeks?

One thing to keep in mind is that the crescent target (Old Persian ?taka) is a shape not a construction material. Ones made from sticks-and-hide, as on the Solocha comb or at Pazyryk, would be different from ones made of glued planks, or rawhide, or formed leather, or wickerwork. I strongly suspect that most of those materials were used somewhere. One made in Sparda would probably be different from one made in Persis.

[richard robinson]

Skythian comb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scythian_comb.jpg as evidence

interesting article with my favourite reconstructions
http://www.4hoplites.com/Other%20Troops.htm

regards
Richard

[Dan D'Silva]

Two-week bump.

Here are all the period depictions of crescent shields I've been able to find online... and here's what I can see on them:

Side of shield illustrated
Front: 9
Back: 13
Not sure which side: 4

There are actually only 25 pieces of art here, but the Solokha comb shows both the front and back of one shield so it counts as two above. Below I count it as only one depiction of stickwork.

Texture
Decorated front (presumably smooth): 5 or 6
Checkered or crosshatched front: 1
Checkered/crosshatched back: 3
Checkered/crosshatched but I'm not sure which side: 1
Bands or chevrons (not sure what this represents): 2
Unidirectional stickwork: 1
Smooth back: 6
Smooth but not sure which side: 1
Not sure of the texture regardless of side: 4

Grip system
Double grip with single armband or porpax: 3
Double grip with two crossed armbands: 2 or 3
Off-center handgrip but can't see armband: 2
Central grip: 3
Think I can see the back but somehow I'm still not sure: 2

[Dan D'Silva]

Four-week bump. I hope I'm not breaking any rules here.

I tried making a Pazyryk-Solokha-type shield (unidirectional stickwork and leather), but the leather I had on hand -- a rather soft 7-9 ounce veg tan that runs almost 5mm -- was too thick to set the dowels close together. I'm gonna put the dowels aside until I get some rawhide.

The Sarcophagus shields interest me more, though. Despite the level of physical detail in the carving, the shields seem to be perfectly smooth. Solid wood construction, arbitrary lack of detail, or were they completely covered in a facing and backing?

[Sean Manning]

I've usually seen it suggested that sticks-and-leather shields were rawhide, but have not checked the original publications. Barry Molloy ed., The Cutting Edge has a bit on a reconstruction project in the chapter on Scythian bows. I don't know how helpful it would be.

[Michael Kerr]

Ellis Minns in his book Scythians & Greeks mentions that reindeer skin was commonly used on Scythian shields.
Regards
Michael Kerr

[Dan D'Silva]

Interesting. Does he give any analysis on whether it was tanned or raw?

I'm leaning toward rawhide because it is harder to cut when dry and because Simon James believed that the Dura shields were. I think of them as circumstantial evidence in relation to Skythian ones since they were constructed in the same way, even if from another time period: In other words, of all the stick-and-hide shields I know of, at least one set was rawhide and I have no idea if any were tanned leather.

[Michael Kerr]

Hi Dan, I don't think I can help you with that question but I shall quote the reference from his book which was first printed in 1913 & he quotes Aelian.

(Ch. xi. §5^ 3, 4.) Aelian" says that the Scythians covered their shields with Tarandus (reindeer) skin.

I know nothing about hides & tanning but I have read that reindeer hide is softer than other hides so to use reindeer hide for shields doesn't seem to make sense to me unless for decorative purposes for religious ceremonies & burials etc.

If you are interested the book can be downloaded free from the site below.

http://archive.org/details/scythiansgreekss00minn

Regards
Michael Kerr

[Sean Manning]

Hi Dan,

I have spent a little time thinking about this, and I don't know how much I can help. I think that Herodotus just speaks of small or leather aspides (“shields”) used by Paphlagonians, Phrygians, Mysians, etc. Cilicians carry λαισήιά "skins with the hair still on" instead of aspides. Thracians carry the pelte and Medes, Persians, and Cissians carry gerra (which are probably the big rectangular woven shields, but just possibly the violin-shaped ones from Persepolis). In other words, at least in his day there was a distinction between small Thracian shields and other people's small shields, and shields all of hide were unusual. Xenophon sometimes speaks of mega gerra “big wicker shields” which might imply that not all wicker shields were the big rectangular kind. The Anabasis has some interesting descriptions of shields but I don't have a list of passages handy.

That photo of images has most of the ones that I know. There is a list of vases and some photos in Anne Bovon, “La Representation des Guerriers perses et la notion du barbare dans la Ire motie du Ve siecle,” Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique 87 (1963) pp. 579-602. There might be something in Anne Lisarague's "L'Autre Guerrieure" which is on troops other than hoplites in Athenian art?

Don't forget the Kinch tomb with the prodromos/sarrisophoros hippeus riding down an infantryman with a smooth, rimless, unbossed shield. That is from Alexander's day or a generation later, so about contemporary with the “Alexander sarcophagus.” There is also the Canakkale tomb with its warriors with small round shields.

The Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum database is very good for searching Greek painted pottery and it is free http://www.cvaonline.org/cva The only thing in the Encyclopaedia Iranica which comes to mind is this article but they are always worth browsing ... lots of articles by good European scholars who read many languages.

Hi Dan, I don't think I can help you with that question but I shall quote the reference from his book which was first printed in 1913 & he quotes Aelian.

Humh. Do you know which work by which Aelian? Claudius Aelianus, De Natura Animalium 2.16 has a passage about skins and Scythian shields.

Scythians and Greeks in South Russia is a good book.

[Michael Kerr]

Sean Manning wrote:

Humh. Do you know which work by which Aelian? Claudius Aelianus, De Natura Animalium 2.16 has a passage about skins and Scythian shields.

I had a look at the entry in Minns book on page 73 about deerskin shields & you are correct Claudius Aelianus De Natura Animalium 2.16, Thoraces.
Thanks for tip on book.
Regards
Michael Kerr